Keurig

The Heart Of It All Is Still Creativity And Sharing

Garth Beyer

And Creating

Keurig, the new Brewbot, and so many other products allow you to be creative in your home. Every (smart) industry has gone from giving customers whatever they have to giving customers personalized products and services to giving customers products and services to create themselves.

Everyone is an artist now.

This black friday, I hope you consider what you can get others to make them more of an artist. What can you give them that will able them to be creative and to share their creations (and you share yours!).

If you will be shopping today, at least distinguish between what everyone else is buying because it’s on a (fake) discount and what you can buy that will change the way people create and share.

We may not be able to do away with black friday, but we can redirect the focus.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Our Purchasing Power Responsibility

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A Matter Of Free

Garth Beyer

Free

Don’t give your honest hard work away for free.

Know what your art is and then make sure you receive respectable payment for it.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give anything for free. No matter what your art is, there are trillions of other things that you can give for free other than your art.*

I’ve always been satisfied with buying a book and getting additional content for free. Or buying an appliance and getting a discount on a future purchase.

I’ve never been happy buying a book and getting another one from the same author for free. Or paying for a cupcake and getting a toaster oven for free. Is it the cupcake that’s valuable or the toaster oven?

Stick to what you deserve to be paid for. What that is, of course, you get to decide on.

 

Stay Positive & Free Should Not Come At A Price

Garth E. Beyer

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*as it goes, there are exceptions. Keurig can give away free Keurig machines because they know consumers can answer the question, “how does this benefit Keurig?” Consumers know instinctively that Keurig’s main profit comes from people purchasing K-cups, not Keurig machines. Thus, no one wonders why in the world Keurig would give Keurig machines away for free.

Looking Like The Good Guy

Garth Beyer

If you’re given 10 free canvases, you still need to buy the paint.

If a friend gives you his old Gameboy, you still need to come up with the games.

When you buy an iPod, you have to get all the songs and shows you want.

Smart product creation is when you pay a large amount for one product that forces you to spend small amounts on what you need to use it: paints, games, songs, etc,.

Keurig is letting Madisonians trade in their used corded coffee makers for a brand new Keurig, looking like the good guy.

But now those that trade up have to buy K cups to go with it. Short term loss for Keurig, but creating a long-term gain. From my estimates, it will take roughly 300 K-cups for the Keurig to be paid off. From then on, it’s all profit.

(The target audience in itself is brilliant. They are appealing strictly to frequent to extreme coffee drinkers. Point for another post, perhaps.)

Keurig makes itself look good, but really it’s genius product design. Not necessarily making them the bad guy, but just a reminder that your habit is their profit, making you the product.

If it weren’t for the ease of pirating music. I’m sure Apple would be letting you upgrade your mp3 player to an iPod. I think we can cope though. It takes a very special product to pull off what Keurig is.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Coffee Time

Garth E. Beyer